Year in Review: Lion was the highest grossing Australian film in 2017

The Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia have released the finalised 2017 box office numbers, cementing Academy Award Best Picture nominee Lion as the highest earning Australian film at the local box office, taking a record $29.5 million.

This sees Lion go into the history book as the 5th all-time biggest Australian film at the local box office. This record also propelled Australian films to a 4.1% share in 2017, while Lion took a total $177.94 million worldwide across 57 territories, which includes Australia.

The top 5 Australian films at the local box office were followed by Red Dog: True Blue, which made $5.9 million in addition to its $1.6 million made in 2016, Jasper Jones with $2.7 million, Dance Academy with $2.1 million, and the documentary Mountain which made $2 million.

Rounding out the total 10 films were Ali’s Wedding, Three Summers, Hacksaw Ridge, Don’t Tell and Rip Tide, which collectively saw Australian films take an impressive $49.4 million at the local box office in 2017.

In television, the combined 28-day consolidated 2017 TV ratings for metropolitan and regional areas confirm that The Doctor Blake Mysteries telemovie Family Portrait shown on ABC was the top rating Australian drama with a collective audience of 1.6 million, followed by Hoges: The Paul Hogan Story shown on Channel Seven, which aired to a collective 1.5 million viewers.

2017 has shown us that Australian film on television remains wildly popular, as The Dressmaker attracted 1.2 million viewers for its free-to-air debut.

As more Australians are consuming media online, Screen Australia has followed suit by investing over $25 million in over 150 digital originals. The top trending YouTube video in Australia for 2017 was the Superwog Pilot, accumulating over a million views in just four days. The 23 minute episode was funded by Skip Ahead, and even beat out highly popular international competitors like Carpool Karaoke. RackaRacka also took home the inaugural AACTA Award for best online video or series.

The 2017 Australian box office has been an eventful one, showing that Australia is not only competing with the best, but providing the world with a new home for quality entertainment. For more information on the Australian local box office, you can click here.